Smart Grids, Super Smart Grids, and Microgrids: A Triple Challenge for the Future of Energy Landscape

This paper explores the evolving landscape of smart grids and super smart grids (SSG) through a review of recent academic publications (2019-2024). An SSG expands the traditional smart grid concept by interconnecting power grids across vast regions, facilitating the efficient transfer of renewable energy sources (RES) across borders. While the potential of SSG lies in enhancing global energy security and reducing carbon emissions, significant challenges remain, including high infrastructure costs, geopolitical risks and cybersecurity concerns. Additionally, controversies surrounding energy control and the environmental impact of large-scale infrastructure development add complexity to the SSG debate. Our paper focuses on emerging research trends and key topics related to SSG, aiming to address several concerns: (1) SSG viability given the current global energy landscape and conflicts; (2) the prevailing academic sentiment towards SSG in recent publications; (3) the most prominent research topics and emergent themes in the field. By analyzing recent publications from the past five years, we aim to shed light on the future of SSG and their interactions with local energy systems such as microgrids. The first topic revolves around data-driven approaches within network contexts, highlighting load management, distribution systems and optimization techniques. The second topic explores performance analysis and comparative studies. The third topic concentrates on control methods in distributed networks. The fourth topic centers on voltage, current and control methods in direct current (DC) systems. Our research identifies seven new research directions for SSG development.